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The Salem Smart Power Center opens today with the battery power of 1,440 electric cars. A room full of batteries, shown here, will be used to store renewable energy when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining so it can be used later when power is in short supply.

Kettle Brand has enough solar panels on the roof of its Salem plant to make 250,000 bags of Kettle Chips. But they only work when the sun is out.
A new smart grid project launching today in Salem is aiming to fill the gaps in solar power at the Kettle Chips plant with renewable energy stored in a room full of lithium ion batteries. It's a major breakthrough in smart grid technology, though it's just starting up as a demonstration project.

A smarter power grid has a lot to offer the Pacific Northwest as the region adds more wind and solar energy to meet renewable energy mandates. Smart grid technology can help store and balance these variable sources of energy and deliver them more efficiently. And it could ultimately help alleviate the need to build new gas-fired power plants and transmission lines.

As part of a federal push to create jobs and update American infrastructure, the Obama administration announced today it will be accelerating the permitting and construction of three transmission line projects in the Northwest:

One of the big questions facing renewable energy advocates in the West is how to add more wind power without overwhelming the transmission system. As the wind picks up and dies down, power managers need to balance out the increase and decrease in wind energy generated by dialing up other power sources or absorbing extra electricity when no one needs it.

Clean energy advocates released a report yesterday examining what the Western power grid could look like in 2050 under two scenarios: 1. the region continues business as usual, or 2. new policies drive more investment in clean energy.

The Northwest has set goals to use more renewable energy over the next 15 years, but the existing power delivery system wasn’t set up for getting variable wind and solar power to your house efficiently.

I’ve found myself asking a lot of questions lately about how the Northwest power grid works. Oregon is aiming to meet a goal of 25 percent renewable energy by 2025, and has provided incentives for renewable energy development to meet that goal.

I heard an interesting tidbit in Fresh Air's interview with Fareed Zakaria about his new book "A Post-American World." Zakaria told Gross that the U.S. used to be a world leader on many fronts. But now other countries are catching up: The world's tallest building is Dubai, the 50 biggest factories are in China, and the largest oil refinery is in India. The U.S. is losing ground in patent creation and scientific journal citations, too. Among the most important ways the U.S. is falling behind, he says, is energy transmission:

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About Ecotrope

In the Pacific Northwest, the environment is personal - it's where we live, work and play. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Ecotrope will bring you news and insight on the region’s environmental issues. Site curator Cassandra Profita is an award-winning reporter with degrees in journalism and environmental studies.